StaceyPowers Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 In this thread regarding loyalty to video game companies, @killamch89 pointed out that "things can change with those companies in the blink of an eye." This is a very good point. It’s easy to forget that the version of a company that exists today may be radically different from the version that existed ten years ago or even just five—or the version that may exist five or ten years from now. What in your opinion were the best and worst eras for various video game companies—especially those like EA that get a lot of flak? What made them good or bad during those time periods? What could they do today to improve? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killamch89 Posted October 27, 2019 Share Posted October 27, 2019 EA was good up until 2010 when they started to introduce micro-transactions to Dead Space, Bethesda went totally off track with Fallout 76 and Elder Scrolls Blades. Activision has been off the boil for a solid 15 years minimum with their handling of the Crash Bandicoot title among others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyxx Posted October 27, 2019 Share Posted October 27, 2019 I think Activision had their prime time in the 80's when they released some really good titles for the Atari 2600 among other things. After that they became purely a publisher with no in-house development so staying loyal to Activision makes little sense to me given they no longer actually do any development. In fact they may always have been a publisher, it's just that in the 80's, giving credit to developers was actually very uncommon. That's what made EA special in the 80's. They actually were the first publisher that straight up put the developers in the spotlight, releasing games in record style LP sleeves with artwork that highlighted the talented people behind the games. Which is a far cry from how they became in the late 90's and onwards with more and more focus on their branding, and up until now where their branding is all over the place and they've consumed developers and ruined franchises left and right. So as for EA and Activision, both of them were at their best in the 80's and even early 90's. EA in particular released a lot of great titles for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis with their signature "yellow button" cartridges. Bethesda's prime time probably came around the 2000's when they released Elder Scrolls 3 Morrowind. Up until that point they had been kinda obscure. I at least had never heard of them until Morrowind released. They had a fairly good track record up until Fallout 76 all things considered. Fallout 4 got its fair share of criticism sure, but Fallout 76 is what I consider a big turning point for the company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blackangel Posted October 27, 2019 Share Posted October 27, 2019 2 hours ago, Alyxx said: So as for EA and Activision, both of them were at their best in the 80's and even early 90's. EA in particular released a lot of great titles for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis with their signature "yellow button" cartridges. So it was just a way to distinguish their games easier? I always wondered what that damn yellow part was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyxx Posted October 27, 2019 Share Posted October 27, 2019 3 minutes ago, The Blackangel said: So it was just a way to distinguish their games easier? I always wondered what that damn yellow part was. Yeah it was literally just a design choice to make EA games stand out on the console. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killamch89 Posted October 27, 2019 Share Posted October 27, 2019 4 hours ago, Alyxx said: Yeah it was literally just a design choice to make EA games stand out on the console. Look at the pretty yellow button - take my money! 🤣 Almost sounds like a DeeDee(Dexter's sister) moment. Alyxx 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyfire Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 This age is way better for the game developers but worst for the buyers or say gamers who pay for little things in microtransactions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blackangel Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 13 hours ago, skyfire said: This age is way better for the game developers but worst for the buyers or say gamers who pay for little things in microtransactions. I don’t think this age is easier for developers. Expectations have gotten so high for games that it’s next to impossible to meet those expectations. Everyone expects life like graphics, worlds bigger than the real world, abilities that are almost godlike, and speeds that are so fast that they can virtually anticipate your decisions before you make them, just to name a few things. Now rewind 25-30 years, when we were in the 8-16 bit eras. People didn’t have unrealistic expectations for the graphics, game size, speed, and abilities. It was about an enjoyable game, not a cosmetic game. Why else do you think sequels take so long to come out now? Unrealistic expectations. If we, as gamers, would back off on our demands of the industry, we would get better games more regularly. But sadly, I don’t see that happening any time soon. kingpotato 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killamch89 Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 2 hours ago, The Blackangel said: I don’t think this age is easier for developers. Expectations have gotten so high for games that it’s next to impossible to meet those expectations. Everyone expects life like graphics, worlds bigger than the real world, abilities that are almost godlike, and speeds that are so fast that they can virtually anticipate your decisions before you make them, just to name a few things. Now rewind 25-30 years, when we were in the 8-16 bit eras. People didn’t have unrealistic expectations for the graphics, game size, speed, and abilities. It was about an enjoyable game, not a cosmetic game. Why else do you think sequels take so long to come out now? Unrealistic expectations. If we, as gamers, would back off on our demands of the industry, we would get better games more regularly. But sadly, I don’t see that happening any time soon. The problem is that most of these developers are the ones making these outlandish claims and rather than be honest from the get-go, they sell you all kinds of false promises and when the final product is released, they expect us the consumers to buy their product without holding them to the promises they made. There's a thing called competition and if companies aren't as good as their competitors, they'll be left behind in the dust - that is true of any business sector. A lot of it also have to do with how game has been marketed, if the marketing strategy is executed well enough, even a mediocre game can be a hit at least in the short term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyfire Posted October 29, 2019 Share Posted October 29, 2019 10 hours ago, The Blackangel said: I don’t think this age is easier for developers. Expectations have gotten so high for games that it’s next to impossible to meet those expectations. Everyone expects life like graphics, worlds bigger than the real world, abilities that are almost godlike, and speeds that are so fast that they can virtually anticipate your decisions before you make them, just to name a few things. Now rewind 25-30 years, when we were in the 8-16 bit eras. People didn’t have unrealistic expectations for the graphics, game size, speed, and abilities. It was about an enjoyable game, not a cosmetic game. Why else do you think sequels take so long to come out now? Unrealistic expectations. If we, as gamers, would back off on our demands of the industry, we would get better games more regularly. But sadly, I don’t see that happening any time soon. If we compare the 90s where microtransaction was not there. The earning for indie developers was so hard. And they had to find the external publishers. Now a days with android and iphone microtransactions through play stores, there is more earning than decade back. That was the part I was referring to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killamch89 Posted October 29, 2019 Share Posted October 29, 2019 9 hours ago, skyfire said: If we compare the 90s where microtransaction was not there. The earning for indie developers was so hard. And they had to find the external publishers. Now a days with android and iphone microtransactions through play stores, there is more earning than decade back. That was the part I was referring to. You're right about the mobile market - any decent enough game with microtransactions can rake in millions so they don't have to put that much effort into a game compared to developers whose primary market is PC/Console. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blackangel Posted October 29, 2019 Share Posted October 29, 2019 Every part of the market will have times that they will look back at when they were doing better, and times when they were doing worse. They will also look ahead at times when they should be doing better, and times they're not sure about. But either way, as long as the publisher maintains or gains some integrity, things should do fine for us as gamers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killamch89 Posted October 29, 2019 Share Posted October 29, 2019 (edited) 4 hours ago, The Blackangel said: Every part of the market will have times that they will look back at when they were doing better, and times when they were doing worse. They will also look ahead at times when they should be doing better, and times they're not sure about. But either way, as long as the publisher maintains or gains some integrity, things should do fine for us as gamers. The problem is, apart from a few companies, the rest are lying scumbags who deliver broken pieces of junk for top dollar and try to milk every last cent out of us the gamers. They then try to justify their crappy practices with things like "to improve the gamer experience, we had to charge our players even more". Edited October 29, 2019 by killamch89 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyfire Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 17 hours ago, killamch89 said: You're right about the mobile market - any decent enough game with microtransactions can rake in millions so they don't have to put that much effort into a game compared to developers whose primary market is PC/Console. Yes PC based microtransactions are not as leaky and desperate like mobile though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killamch89 Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 8 hours ago, skyfire said: Yes PC based microtransactions are not as leaky and desperate like mobile though. That's more or less what I was saying in my previous comment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
